This invention relates to pipe protectors, especially those suited to use on oil well drill pipe and pipe strings for the protection of such pipe and the casing in which the pipe operates.
In the drilling of oil-, gas-, and water wells, it is common practice to place resilient collars at spaced locations along the drill pipe string. Such collars are called pipe protectors. They serve as buffers to cushion impacts and reduce wear between the drill string and the surrounding casing as the drill string is rotated or run into or out of the well.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,652,138, issued Mar. 28, 1972, to Charles H. Collett, for "Self-Locking Snap-on Collar for Oil Well Operations", discloses pipe collars useful in themselves as pipe or rod protectors, or useful as stop collars for longitudinally positioning a relatively rotatable protector on a pipe.